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Score breakdown
· 5 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon34 pts → Rare
Metal-rich asteroid+14
Notably bright (low H)+8
Has a proper name+8
Asteroid+1
Main-belt asteroid+1
Total score32
2 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
🪨Asteroid· +1
💡Notably bright (low H)· +8
🏷️Has a proper name· +8
🥌Main-belt asteroid· +1
⚙️Metal-rich asteroid· +14
✨ Trivia
What it actually is
🛸Its orbit family. A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
🌞Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 2.91 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
🔁One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5.2 years.
🥏How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.91 and 3.12 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
🧱Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is roughly 4.9× the height of Mount Everest.
🚶Walk around it. Walking its equator at a steady pace, eight hours a day, would take about 3.4 days.
Standing on it
🥶Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 12% as strong as Earth's.
By the numbers
📐Size. Roughly 43.2 km across.
Properties
albedo
0.1587
aphelion au
3.12
designation
798
diameter km
43.19
eccentricity
0.0358
full name
798 Ruth (A914 WH)
h mag
9.72
inclination
9.22
mean motion deg day
0.1883
moid au
1.9
name
Ruth
named
yes
orbit class
MBA
perihelion au
2.907
rotation period h
8.55
semi major au
3.015
spec taxonomy
M
spect
M
About Ruth
Ruth is an uncommon asteroid. It has spectral type M and swings within 2.907 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A main-belt asteroid, one of millions circling between Mars and Jupiter. Despite the films, the belt is so empty that every spacecraft sent through it has crossed without aiming for anything.
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, Ruth is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. Because it moves against the background stars, the live position panel on this page tracks where it is right now. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why Ruth is an uncommon asteroid
Ruth scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Asteroid, Notably bright (low H), Has a proper name, Main-belt asteroid and Metal-rich asteroid — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.